THIS CHART Tells a Story… America’s Middle Class Thrived After WWII and Died Under Obama

The Davos World Economic Summit has long been a parade for the insider agenda, putting the power players’ plans for the world’s economies on display as a preview to their playing out for the rest of the year.

But so far, the 2015 elite retreat in the Swiss Alps has proven to be full of apprehension, and even horror… with many of its own members expressing regret at the world they have built.

The billionaires and corporate oligarchs meeting in Davos this week are getting worried about inequality… even the architects of the crisis-ridden international economic order are starting to see the dangers. It’s not just the maverick hedge-funder George Soros, who likes to describe himself as a class traitor. Paul Polman, Unilever chief executive, frets about the “capitalist threat to capitalism”. Christine Lagarde, the IMF managing director, fears capitalism might indeed carry Marx’s “seeds of its own destruction” and warns that something needs to be done.

The scale of the crisis has been laid out for them by the charity Oxfam. Just 80 individuals now have the same net wealth as 3.5 billion people – half the entire global population. Last year, the best-off 1% owned 48% of the world’s wealth, up from 44% five years ago. On current trends, the richest 1% will have pocketed more than the other 99% put together next year. The 0.1% have been doing even better, quadrupling their share of US income since the 1980s.

These billionaires are not concerned with a fair or truly equitable world, of course. But they may well be concerned about having pushed the system beyond the brink, and triggering global collapse or unrest as a result of things gone way too far.

In 2015, it has become obvious that inequality has become just plain cynical, unsettling and, perhaps, downright revolutionary… and even the insulated, egocentric billionaires have taken notice.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph compiled a set of compelling reasons to think the world has fallen back into crisis, with a global economic meltdown perhaps looming overhead.

Charts compiled from 2014 data showed gloomy numbers in everything from stunted growth, mounting deflation, collapsing oil prices (and with it a collapsing Russian economy), conspicuously low central bank interest rates, mounting debt in Europe and the UK, new waves of the Euro-crises in Greece, Italy and Spain, and shortcomings in previous forecasts for growth by the IMF.

Who benefits from rising incomes in an expansion has changed drastically over the last 60 years. Pavlina R. Tcherneva, an economist at Bard College, created a chart that vividly shows how.

Back in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, most of the income gains experienced during expansions — the periods from the trough of one recession until the onset of another — accrued to most of the people. That is to say, the bottom 90 percent of earners captured at least a majority of the rise in income.

With each expansion in sequence, however, the bottom 90 percent captured a smaller share of income gains and the top 10 percent captured more.

Post-WWII and the Burgeoning Middle Class

It’s not that things were ever perfect, but… here’s a glimpse into how most Americans – the “average” American in the middle or lower class was doing, overall, half a century or so ago. With a strong manufacturing and industrial sector, many had the opportunity for a good paying job, a home and some semblance of upward mobility. Not all was rosy, but by the numbers, things were on an even enough keel.

In short, the chart begins in 1949, when the income growth for most Americans outweighed that of the top 10% by a factor of four to one.

The trend gradually declined, moving from 80% of income growth in the bottom 90% in 1949-1953 to just 55% in the years 1975-79.

During those years, most Americans steadily enjoyed relatively high wages and general prosperity.

The beginning of deindustrialization meant that, more and more, Americans weren’t producing actual goods; manufacturing was in decline, and many good jobs were soon shipped over seas.

Meanwhile, wealth on a global stage flowed through the petrodollar, which was, in turn, recycled on Wall Street, making speculators and banking houses – not good and production – the center of the economic universe.

Deregulation and Unfettered Speculation in the 1980s and 1990s

Thus, the increases in income as wealth changed dramatically in the following decades, starting in the year 1982 and continuing to 2000 and the end of the century.

During the presidencies of Republicans Ronald Reagan and George Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, income growth patterns flipped from their post-war patterns, with the top 10% suddenly outpacing everyone nearly 3-to-1, and regular folks seeing a noticeable decrease in their earnings.

In short, the middle class in decline. And things were getting even worse for those at the bottom.

The deregulation atmosphere of the 80s represented a complete upheaval of the post-war middle class boom.

As Wall Street’s predatory capitalism became the law of the land, a full 80% of income growth went to those at the top, while middle and lower class wealth suddenly staggered to a 29% share.

The 90s continued this trend, with income growth for the bottom 90% dropping to 27%.

This fast-paced era of “free market” (crony) capitalism – as defined and enhanced by Wall Street – only set the stage for what was to come, however.

The Walls Come Down: End of Glass Steagall and Rise of Derivatives Intro 21st Century

Under these important developments, the cynical years of the George W. Bush presidency – initiated by a Supreme Court decision, and not by the electoral process – became even worse.

Income growth for most people ground to a halt, with the total income growth for the lower and middle classes reaching only 2% (meaning most had no meaningful rise in income at all).

Meanwhile, income growth for the top 10% soared to 98% of all increases. America’s richest took it straight to the bank, in an era of massive speculation during a huge housing bubble that would soon come crashing down.

Much has been said about the 2008 financial crisis, but the “too big to fail” banks were signposts for an opportunistic class of Americans who had profited by their own rules when opportunity was dwindling for most people.

After the brink, when taxpayers bailed out the banks, things became even worse for average Americans who found themselves in the so-called “bottom 90%.”

During the Obama years, when many Americans perceived America’s first black president as redistributing vast amounts of wealth to the lower classes, income dropped sharply, with negative growth for 90% of Americans for the first time since World War II.

There was no such leveling out, but a sharpening of the growing disparity nationwide. Obama is a corporatist, not a socialist.

During the period since 2009, when most Americans saw an average drop of 16% in income, the top 10% increased their wealth by a mind-boggling 116%. Their earnings more than doubled, while the average population struggled with less and less. Things reached a point of total us vs. them…

The Occupy Wall Street crowd called it the 1%, but it is much worse than that. The issue is a tiny, tiny few (numbering only a few thousand) who now effectively own it all.

They make the rules, they break the rules, and, well, they just rule. Period.

Could the picture be any clearer?

This video shows how America’s perception of the wealth gap underplays the reality, and compounds the problems, and further reveals that in reality, the bottom 40% in the United States have, well, next to nothing to show for themselves in terms of economic wealth:

The extinction of a large and vibrant American middle class isn’t ordained by the laws of either economics or physics. Many of the impediments to creating anew a broadly prosperous America are ultimately political creations that are susceptible to political remedy. Amassing the power to secure those remedies will require an extraordinary, sustained, and heroic political mobilization. Americans will have to transform their anxiety into indignation and direct that indignation to the task of reclaiming their stake in the nation’s future.

Perhaps that means the Middle Class could be once again revived, if ever sanity reentered the picture, if the bums were kicked out and those guilty of outright treason in the financial and political arenas were finally rounded up and held accountable.

But don’t hold your breath… just hold onto what you’ve got, if you can.

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All it takes is one cyber hack and its all out for the WWW to act on. Im sure we will all enjoy a “share the wealth” opportunity. Hope they like the ulcers, heart attacks, and sleepless nights. They earned them.

Sixpack, where would we be without the rich people? Unemployed, uninsured, homeless, and living in rags. The rich are the solution, not the problem. How many employees do poor people have. The rich should not have to apologize for their brains, money, or pedigree. God bless the rich, for they are the reason we have the living standard we have today.

I’m not talking about just “rich” people here. I am talking about those people who are so filthy rich that they are above the laws and lawmakers they buy.

They assassinate presidents and political opponents and get away with it.

They buy countries and own leaders.

They buy governments who do their bidding.

They pay mercenaries to mass murder millions without batting an eye.

We all know who they are. They own the alphabet soup agencies.

They own military leaders around the globe.

I’ve never faulted anyone for simply being wealthy. It’s the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Warburgs, Soros, etc, that I speak of in my rants…those people who believe their money means they own the world and everything in it, to do with what they please.

Not the people who EARNED their wealth. We can’t lump them all in together.

The destruction of the American Middle Class began with GHW Bush, the first of four CIA/ New World Order Presidents. This destruction was foreseen by anyone with half a brain and a basic economic education.

Ross Perot predicted NAFTA would be a “giant sucking sound” where American jobs would disappear across the border.

Slick Willie signed NAFTA into law and the Hoovering of American Jobs began. China was given “most favored nation status” soon thereafter, transferring the flow to China from Mexico, as they set up “FREE TRADE ZONES” in Shanghai.

Under GWB the “deindustrialization” of America began in earnest with the transfer of 42,400 FACTORIES offshore and the loss of 70 million American jobs. Under Obola, 18,000 FACTORIES and millions of additional American jobs followed during his first term in the Oval Office.

TREASON IN THE OVAL OFFICE!!! DEATH TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER!!! ITS TOTALLY CONSTITUTIONAL!!! ENGAGE!!! 🙂

The destruction of the “American Middle Class” began on August 15, 1971.

“Today, Aug. 15, 2011, is the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s colossal error: severing the final link between the dollar and gold. No other single action by Nixon has had a more profound and deleterious effect on the American people. In the end, breaking the solemn promise that a dollar was worth 1/35th of an ounce of gold doomed his Presidency, and marked the beginning of the worst 40 years in American economic history.” ~ Forbes

“If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency (Federal Reserve, central bank, IMF) , first by inflation and then by deflation (Economic bubbles), the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless in the streets.”
Thomas Jefferson

I got to agree with you granny. And this isn’t the first time they have done this. 1929 was a stellar year for them also.

YMWW, here’s on thing you and I can agree on, but go back just a little further to the late 60s when we started losing our TV industry to Japan. RCA Co. used to have a TV factory in Memphis. When it was shut down in 1970, my mother along with 100 other people were laid off and the assembly line was given to the Japs. That’s when the so-called ‘free trade’ really began.

Keep in mind that Nixon didn’t do this by himself. Congress allowed this to happen and supported it. The Congress and Supreme Court members we have now are even worse. All they care about is lining their pockets with cash while they destroy the U.S.A.

YMWW: Again you show your COMPLETE ignorance of finance, economics, history and world trade.

The Ungrateful French, who ass we saved from the Nazi’s, and who’s economy we salvaged with the Marshall Plan (read American taxes), and who’s export economy (read French jobs) was supported by a strong US Dollar backed by gold; were just too fucking greedy: they wanted all of that and our gold too.

We have since done the same for China, Mexico, and other nations: some of which were not smart enough to invent the wheel in 10,000 years of living on North and South America.

If ALL nations are on gold and if ALL nations have the same currency, then the wealth (gold) will flow to that nation which is most productive and most ingenious. Until then, the American Consumer is tasked with raising the living standards of sheeple everywhere and at our own expense.

You are a fucking MORON. Wrong again!!! Its not about gold. Had Nixon kept the gold standard and redeemed our Euro dollars in gold for the French as they wanted, America would be just as broke. At least now, America is suppose to have 8,000 +/- tonnes of gold.

Its about the wealth of nations and international commerce: of which you obviously know NOTHING!!! 🙂

“The Ungrateful French… were just too fucking greedy: they wanted all of that and our gold too.”

Hey genius: That was their right under the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944. You have heard of Bretton Woods, right?

“At least now, America is suppose to have 8,000 +/- tonnes of gold. Its about the wealth of nations and international commerce: of which you obviously know NOTHING!!!”

“8000 +/- tonnes of gold?”

LOL… Just who is the “moron” here DK??

America’s gold is mainly gone. Gone east!

Two observations:

1. They (the Fed) obviously don’t own the gold reserves they claim. In 2011, the Germans asked for their gold back, and the Fed said no. It then said it would give back 300 tons over the next seven years. By early 2014, the Fed had returned only 5 tons. Then in June 2014, the Germans did an abrupt about face. They decided their gold was safe in American hands after all. How convenient (for the Fed).

If you don’t think there’s something rotten in New York, you’re either not paying attention, or you are a shill for the Fed.

2. If they (the Fed) had the gold reserves they claim, they would allow an independent audit of the vaults. And that will never happen.

The gold standard just forces a nation to live within its means hence nations would be inclined to keep its true wealth generating means high. The abandonment of this standard allowed the US to temporarily spend money like a drunken sailor (no offense to either drunks or sailors). This has increased the US standard of living far beyond our productive capacity. The changes in domestic laws facilitated an increasing amount of that false “wealth” to rise upward.

In the end its not indefinitely sustainable and the concentration of this falsely created wealth is accelerating the timetable of collapse of the current system.

K2: Your premise is correct only if nations conducted their international commerce under FAIR TRADE rules. It is not correct under FREE TRADE rules.

A global commercial system cannot function for long under a gold standard and the current rules of trade. This is why China will NEVER back it Yuan with gold.

Under a gold standard the Yuan would be the strongest currency; their export economy would collapse; FX would crash; currency reserves would disappear; government borrowings would rise, its debt to GDP would increase; and other nations would demand the right to repatriate the Yuan and receive gold.

1. GH Bush and Republicans push for NAFTA
2. The Main Stream Media goes ballistic using every platform to chastise these evil Republican lackey’s of Big Business and Finance.
3. Ross Perot starts a campaign against NAFTA and runs for President as an independent
4. Bill Clinton comes out publicly against NAFTA especially when addressing his Union supporters.
5. Ross Perot is climbing in the polls and is actually a real contender
6. Ross Perot sabotages his own campaign but remains in the race.
7. Bill Clinton wins having had votes pulled from GH Bush by Perot. The insider spoiler achieved his goal.
8. Bill Clinton bribed, twisted arms and did whatever is necessary to get the vital Democrat votes for NAFTA that eluded the capabilities of GH Bush.
9. NAFTA is passed.
10. The Main Stream Media is quiet in condemning Bill Clinton as they had GH Bush for NAFTA
11. The Democrat supporters largely think NAFTA was done by GH Bush. They vote back in the very same Democrat Congressmen and Senators that passed NAFTA
12. With nothing to fear from the voters China Free Trade is passed before Clinton leaves office.
13. Glass-Steagall is also abandoned ushering in a Wall Street / Financial Industry free for all. What was a felony for good reason is now perfectly legal
14. Bill Clinton is hailed a hero by the masses who are out of ignorance unaware of his role in their poverty.
15. GW Bush lets the system export jobs and while not stopping it he has to do nothing to facilitate but inaction as his predecessor did all the work for him.
16. Eight years later another Democrat rallies the party against “Outsourcing” and is elected. He like his predecessor does nothing to stop it and is hailed as a savior of the working class.

In the end its quite obvious that both horses are purchased in the two horse race. Only a fool believes otherwise.

The globalists needed us when the USSR had a big chunk of the world. Thats the reason we had it “pretty good”. The groundwork for their omnipotent control was planted as far back as the Federal Reserve Act.

The MIC / Military and Finance got JFK. They been steering events quite heavily at least since then.

The tree they planted a long time ago took time to bear fruit. The farmers they have now are just helping them harvest. The previous farmers did the planting and cultivating.

Kevin2, that is exactly right. What do the elitists expect after what they’ve done to our country and we are aware of it. They damned well better hide the best they can. If I encounter any of them, they will receive “lead poisoning.”

Just like to point out that although Clinton signed the bill ending Glass-Steagall, the bill was created and supported by most Republicans. Some Dems turned their backs on their own constituents and helped pass it.

Your 100% correct. The difference is the Republicans up front tell you where they stand. The outraged public then votes Democrat who finish what the Republicans started. In the end the Republicans get the blame and The Powers That Be get what they want. The public just keeps chasing the left v right dynamic with the same effect of a dog chasing his tail.

Both horses are bought in the two horse race.

As the late George Carlin said, “Its a club and your not a member”. That gent had more truth in a comedy monolog than the entire legislative and executive branch does combined.

Item #12: Clinton grants “Most Favored Nation” status to mainland China on the grounds it will open a huge market to US-made goods. Soon after, Bentonville Arkansas-based Walmart begins sourcing much of their goods from China. Does anyone here imagine that Walmart may have influenced this decision with campaign contributions to the guy from Little Rock? Sure smells fishy to me.

“That same year, Clinton signed a landmark trade agreement with the People’s Republic of China. The agreement–the result of more than a decade of negotiations–would lower many trade barriers between the two countries, making it easier to export U.S. products such as automobiles, banking services, and motion pictures. However, the agreement could only take effect if China was accepted into the WTO and was granted permanent “normal trade relations” status by the U.S. Congress. Under the pact, the United States would support China’s membership in the WTO. Many Democrats as well as Republicans were reluctant to grant permanent status to China because they were concerned about human rights in the country and the impact of Chinese imports on U.S. industries and jobs. Congress, however, voted in 2000 to grant permanent normal trade relations with China. Several economic studies have since been released that indicate the increase in trade resulting lowered American prices and increased the U.S. GDP by 0.7% throughout the following decade.[97]

The Clinton administration negotiated a total of about 300 trade agreements with other countries.[98] ”

We would be more accurate if we determined when it accelerated. Once an American made a decent wage, largely with the assistance of collective bargaining and the aftermath of the destruction from WWII, cheaper sources of labor were sought after.

The list of the culprits involved is lengthy and the time chronology quite long as many smaller steps facilitated greater and greater globalization over time.

5 in of snow and 35 degrees F. Snowshoed over 15 miles of abandoned, overgrown railroad track carved into the side of a mountain.

Do snowshoes work? Yes and no. Work great if you are on flat, paved terrain and deep snow. Taking them into the actual woods you have to take them on and off so many times when facing obstacles they are more trouble then they are worth. You probably move just as fast with Wellington boots (knee high rubber, my preferred winter hiking boots).

Human senses are very dull. I stop every few minutes to do a 360 scan. I walk on ridgelines because the wind is concentrated there and it will help to conceal my tracks. Also, it is generally easiest to get up a mountain by following the ridge line; the grade is less and there tends to be no flora. I almost stepped on a fox carcass without realizing it. It had been ripped to pieces and eaten, right down to the fur and bones. Bones and fur were scattered everywhere. There are a hell of a lot of animal tracks in the woods. Seldom are you as alone as you think you are. There were zero human tracks as we live in a country of pussies and I’m the only one with balls to do this shit.

I have fallen down to some extent on nearly every mountaineering expedition I have ever been on.

Never wear cotton in the winter or rain or wind. With thin nylon long johns and Columbia’s lightest camo softshell with the Omni heat thermal reflective liner I stay at the perfect temperature, but I am still wet with perspiration. That could be dangerous in certain circumstances.

I always end up taking some shit out of my pack when I get to the trailheads for reduced weight (alpine style). If you think you are going to bug out with all this bullshit in your pack (especially if you are fat) you need a reality check. Minimalist medical and survival kit, 1 canteen, few crackers, few weapons and that’s it. Most commonly I take food and water fleece hoody and radio out of my pack and do without it. You don’t realize how much water weighs until to try to trek with it.

Yeah, just read about what all goes in prisons– which are now owned by corporations. Chris Hedges is an excellent writer.. please go to his website to see what is happening in prisons… and coming to a town near you (Hint: you are next!)

This is depressing, and even more depressing is the fact that the high school seniors I showed this too this morning had no comment really. This generation of even the good kids are so desensitized by TPTB that trying to get them to be aware of this is like pissing up a waterfall. They don’t want to learn how to think, only to be told what to think.

If they’re not sufficiently dumbed down just light up a joint. As much as I agree with legalization I think its surprisingly timely. I been to Jamaica several times. Its not legal there but widely used regardless. The people have nothing now and they never will. Their coping mechanism? Marijuana.

This is ironic, points out Electronic Freedom Foundation spokesman Steve Maass, because the police are usually the first to say that anything that happens out in public is fair game for surveillance. They use this argument when justifying the widespread practice of mass license plate scanning, and when justifying the use of facial recognition technology to identify us in a crowd.

But in the case of Waze it’s the police who are being identified in public, and they’re crying foul.

As much as I disagree with everything BHO does “for” this country. He doesn’t own this one. Look at that trend. It is consistent decade after decade. Its systemic not political. I don’t think I fully understand it. But it is some very bad stuff.

Probably has a lot to do with money’s influence over politicians and the always increasing reach of the federal government into every aspect of the economy and our lives. The rich can buy the laws they want to get richer.

Liberal/communist agenda, my fat ass. If you bothered to read real books (such as “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy”), you’d know that our policies and laws are controlled by big business. Everything is being done to make corporations richer and you poorer.

In Communism, that would never happen. And the dictionary defines liberal as: (In a political context) favoring maximum individual liberty in political and social reform: a liberal democratic state. Wise up instead of repeating conservative propaganda.

You are defining “Classical Liberalism,” not the communist/progressive/fascist left wing of today. And if you did your homework, you would see that over the last couple decades, the left is more in bed with corporations that the right ever was….

Possee, after reading your post here I have to say that it’s damn refreshing to hear a man say the truth, instead of thousands of posts about hanging tough, being the one to fire the first shot of the next revolution, etc, it all makes for good press release but it’s also hollow without any substance, and quite frankly, just down right boring.

We are progressing in the direction of what I have called neofuedalism since the Clinton administration.

Kings and Queens on top followed by their various courtesans and Lords and Ladies and such down to the lower ranks of the Sheriffs and tax collectors and magistrates and so on. Below that a skilled artisan class and a slightly larger merchant class to service the royalty and their minions and below them the peasants who only produce that which is necessary to sustain themselves with the rest taken away to support those above them.

Today that will translate into a ranking ruling class made up of the international very wealthy and highest ranking political families, a small elite professional class to do their bidding -lawyers and doctors and such- with a smaller “middle class” below that and the peasant class on the bottom, the service (servant) class.

Mexico is much like that today, look there to see our future social and economic structure. Perhaps that is why we need to bring so many of them in now, to aid in the transition?

The “private central banks” have, of course, taken pains for centuries to conceal their concentrated power with interlocking Boards and Directorates. but this reality is being penetrated. “Using a database which listed 37 million companies and investors worldwide, the researchers studied all 43,060 trans-national corporations (TNCs), including the share ownerships linking them…” to map their worldwide power.

Permit me JQP to quote a small portion of the article you have linked. Why this total article is not a LEAD SUBJECT on a survival blog is mystifying, to say the least. Because if we do not survive the scoundrels in your link, all the supplies, ammo, rice and beans will be for naught.

Quote:

“The lesson in America is clear: if you are a thief steal by the billions and trillions, and then nobody can do anything about it. If you deal in the drug trade, handle only billions (or hundreds of billions) in drug money, and then you will get away with it. If you don’t want to pay taxes, be a member of the top 0,001% of the worlds super rich and hide your billions in offshore tax free accounts. If you want more, create a global economic crisis, demand to be saved by the state to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars, and then tell the state to punish their populations into poverty in order to pay for your mistakes.

In other words, if you want to indulge in your criminal fantasies, lie and steal, profit from death and drugs, dominate and demand, be king and command, become the highly functioning socially-accepted sociopath you always knew you could be…think BANK. Serial killers, bank robbers and drug dealers go to jail, bankers get bailouts and get an unlimited insurance policy, called “TOO BIG TO FAIL.”
________________________

Anyone still on the fence trying to figure out why America and the world is going to hell in a hand basket should read this total article. You will never have to wonder again.

Because JQP’s link is so important, and I see my post had a mistake in my e-mail address I am posting it again before this thread gets left behind.

I am going to quote a portion of that article, because no rice, beans, ammo, etc., is going to save us until we understand what we are facing:

Quote:

“The lesson in America is clear: if you are a thief steal by the billions and trillions, and then nobody can do anything about it. If you are in the drug trade, handle only billions (or hundreds of billions) in drug money and then you will get away with it. If you don’t want to pay taxes, be a member of the top 0.001% of the worlds super rich and hide your billions in off shore tax free accounts. If you want more, create a global economic crisis, demand to be saved by the state to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, and then tell the state to punish their population into poverty in order to pay for your mistakes.

In other words, if you want to indulge in your criminal fantasies, lie and steal, profit from death and drugs, dominate and demand, be king and command, become the highly functioning socially-acceptable sociopath you always knew you could be….think BIG. THINK BANK. Serial killers, bank robbers and drug dealers go to jail, bankers get bailouts and get s unlimited insurance policy called “too big to fail”.”

______________________

Read the total article of the link that JQP posted. It will settle, once and for all, any questions you still have about who is behind this runaway train in America and the world.

Yes, that’s correct Tricia. I always thought we wanted to raise the standards of living of the third world to our level, and just the contrary has happened. As someone else said, we are on the road to serfdom.

Stolz and AC – agree completely but truthfully, had you or I been given the smarts or ability (or whatever it takes) to accumulate great wealth would we be any different?

Of course there will always be people who shun wealth, both monetary and material (Mother Theresa as an example) but I am not one of them although while I am reasonably well off and will be able to live comfortably albeit frugally when I retire early soon I am not wealthy by accepted standards.

I worked out quite early that I could/would never be a tycoon amassing countless millions of dollars so am happy with what I have. Strangely, I don’t begrudge those who have made billions either – it seems they are “driven” to achieve, to accumulate vast wealth. They and I march to the beat of a different drum however.

My point wasn’t directed at anyone who had worked hard and reached a level of wealth to be comfortable. I am very comfortable and each day I thank God to grant me such comfort and the ability to take care of my family. Mother Theresa was an exception but believe me we have many such characters all over the world but they are unknown nor they attempt to be known.

Drive to be an achiever differs from stealing from others under the name of law being made by the same thieves. Corporate cultures are corroded to the core and are not on the side of humanity. Maybe the jackass Romney thinks corporation are humans but they are not. They are using humans to satisfy the greed of their sub human species living in their board rooms.

Head of Goldman Sachs, Chase, UBS, Societe General and almost all international banks in any and all countries on this planet who are operating under their masters in the Global Reserve Systems are CRIMINALS without exceptions and must be eliminated in order for for the humanity to be able to produce many Mother Theresa’s like souls.

Working hard and to be successful differs from being a criminal bankster accumulating wealth by causing wars and committing crimes against humanity as we are witnessing today.

Davos is just the lower tiers of the wealthy. We need to wipe out the bilderberg meetings, where the royals and top tier elites gather. The lower tiers at least have second thoughts, while the true elites have none. The Rothschilds will eat Davos for breakfast.

The big boys are looking for some place to hide outside the confines of the U.S. and other places where they are in the cross hairs. The coming mess will be world wide and people will die and starve because of it. Wars will also result and leaders will be held accountable. It won’t be pretty for anyone then.

They are going to use war to reset and on the other side it’ll be rulers and serfs.

Anyone thinking the top 1% is giving up the good life just because they kept the foot on the gas too long to keep the usa solvent is sorely mistaken.

They are going to come out squeaky clean, meanwhile everyone else will be happy to clean toilets and live in a controlled environment. The future will look like today’s prisons considering the level of control they’ll have.

lena, no one said it would be easy. Reminds me of the movie I think was called ” Brazil”. The only power that we as human can’t reckon with is the almighty God. Anyone else regardless of the amount of money and arms and surveillance are touchable.

Again no one claims it is going to be easy and without a massive bloodshed.

KY Mom, it would seem among the uber rich there is also a percentage of “preppers” who are getting ready for TSHTF. Just like us although whereas where we think we are doing well when we buy a generator they can buy whole retreats.

I still think there will come a time when a rich mans “bolthole” wont do him or his family any good if his money is toilet paper and he has no idea how to grow potatoes or milk a cow.

Bravo old70…..I am sick and tired of the BS blaming Clinton, Bush, Obama and all of the future puppets. The mother of all suffering is a very small fraction of the world population who is controlling the currency and is behind all wars and financial crimes.

If the real enemy is identified and destroyed their minions will be destroyed much easier and without too much hassle.

SV: Bush, Clinton, Bush, & Obama, plus others leadership in our government are responsible for executing the policies and administrating the desires of the New World Order scum who run the world. they could have said “NO” but they wanted to be elected to high office. Put them on your ballot for the Great Election. Hang em high!!!

(After) “he disputed nursing home bills that had suddenly doubled Mrs. Palermo’s copays, and complained about inexperienced employees who dropped his wife on the floor, Mr. Palermo was shocked to find a six-page legal document waiting on her bed.”

“It was a guardianship petition filed by the nursing home, Mary Manning Walsh, asking the court to give a stranger full legal power over Mrs. Palermo, now 90, and complete control of her money.

Few people are aware that a nursing home can take such a step.”

“At least one judge has ruled that the tactic by nursing homes is an abuse of the law, but the petitions, even if they are ultimately unsuccessful, force families into costly legal ordeals.”

Described as…
“a strategic move to intimidate,”
“Nursing homes do it just to bring money.”

And that’s why I hold silver. Not only for myself but for my children. I always tell my kids that if I end up in a wheelchair unable to do anything please don’t put me in a nursing home. I gonna have them get me a large chocolate milkshake and then I’ll drink down most of it to get to large portion of the chocolate at the bottom, then position myself in my wheelchair on a major highway and wait for a 18 wheeler…….weeeeeeeee

6. The opportunity to bankrupt business owners and permanently weaken the private sector, thereby drying up donations for conservative candidates and causes.

7. The opportunity to weaken American influence internationally (see Egypt, Libya, Syria).
Obama’s re-election also means he may serve long enough to appoint one or two more Supreme Court justices, whose radical leftist views will ensure America is permanently transformed to a big government socialist nation.

Yeaaaa,,,
You cant really pin it all on his dumb ass, it takes years of mismanagement to get where we are at, but people are to gullible and stupid to understand that,
Reality,
The whole machine is broken and clunking along ready to stall, it took years of abuse to destry it, it will take years to rebuild it, IF thats even possible, not too much left of Rome either is there

Agreed. Much of the decline can be traced to the socialist policies originating under Wilson beginning in 1913. Add the socialist inclinations of FDR, Johnson, Carter, and Obama; the result is the sacrificing of your God-given rights, a concentration of Federal power, and the theft of wealth from those that earned it. I’d like to blame the whole works on the current abuser of the Constitution but it took a parade of idiots to get us in this mess.

The worldwide money grab started long before 2015. It takes years of planning, huge amounts of money to get Presidents, dictators, and others voted or killing their way into power. Something like Obama and his communist policies would ever have been elected in 1950, the USA was not dumbed down overnight. People like Sol Alinski trained young people into what we are seeing today. The richest of the rich have gone to far, there is not much left to get without taking an entire nation and their resources. Repo a nation ? Who knows ?

I see the same cowards are again blaming our collapsing Corporatist Fascist police state FEUDAL SYSTEM on the black man, who is mere puppet filth. The Globalist NWO Corporatist Fascist GENOCIDAL have you COWARDS right where they want you. If it was not so sick and disgusting it would be laughable.

The nail was forged to seal the coffin of the US middle class decades ago. A nail here and a nail there without a complaint from the corpse. Once the Berlin Wall fell it was, “Game On” as the world opened up dramatically to globalization.

It kinda makes one long for the good old days crawling under your school desk.

Several of those nails were of different sizes but none of them dealt in pennies. One size was NAFTA abet a relatively small one in comparison to its successor China Free Trade which was more of a spike. The abandonment of Glass-Steagall certainly helped to fasten that coffin lid closed too.

My husband and I are middle class. I recieved his Social Security statement the other day and was shocked to discover that he earns the same salary today that he earned 10 years ago. In the past 10 years, he has been laid off, then rehired to do the same job that he did before, his wages were cut and his raises have been extremely nominal (like $20.00 extra per month, per year, before taxes). I am very glad he has a job, don’t get me wrong, but this confirms the central idea of the article above. If it was not for my salary, we would not have survived. We’re blessed in that aspect

Rothschild: “I care not who writes the laws if I control the money”. That’s coming home to roost. In the U.S., Hamilton selling bonds to the wealthy to finance War for Independence debt. The putative First (and Second) Banks of the United States. Thank you Andrew Jackson for opposing that. The Federal Reserve System. The apple has been rotten from the beginning.

Bathroom stall savant: I follow the Golden Rule. They who have the gold write the rules.

You who think one political party or the other is uniquely virtuous (or evil) have swallowed the propaganda. The only political distinction that matters is: For or against individual liberty. One is pro liberty or one is pro state. There is no other distinction. Small hint: there is no mainstream party that is for liberty. What they are for is power for themselves (over us)

No government fosters liberty because they ALL survive from coercion, theft and murder.

However, a government CAN be bought off by the rich. Which has been going on for millennia. It has no ethnic, racial or religious filter. It’s reality everywhere.

One doesn’t change that by writing laws. For one thing, the political class is bought and paid for. It isn’t your $100 donation to the political weasel that he notices. It’s that $10,000 done from the warmonger corporation. Reference: open secret.com

It is beyond political solution. So what can one person do? One person can resolve not to be their slave. One person can prepare so that one does not need the tyrant’s largesse. Apart from that, enjoy what is given you to enjoy. The windmill won’t even notice your lance.

One day a Libertarian will finally ask “Why do the call us LEFTEST LIBERTARIANS?”. The answer is simple, many of the dolts on this site either buy this bullshit, or are trolls operating for Communist controlled Intelligence Agencies to destabilizes The West and spread “Active Measures” rumors.

Get a clue, the Cold War never ended! The only thing that will stop this is open violent rebellion, which will never happen because the Reds knows to back off when things get too near a boiling point.

Far, far more of these “elites,” as you term them, WORKED for every single amount they have ever earned, and they worked HARD. They paid attention in school, they had parents who valued education, they had working class parents, they worked their way through college, they started out at the bottom and were thankful for every day they had the chance to prove themselves, they caught on, they excelled, they treated others properly, as they matured they became family-oriented and straight-laced, they appreciated what was awarded them, they never forgot who they were or where they came from, and they always remembered that they were accountable to someone.

Please stop the class warfare and propaganda.

If you only knew the truth about so many of these leaders, you would be rather embarrassed to have so falsely and unfairly painted them as malicious, greedy, no-goods.

And do you know why they usually don’t defend themselves against these class warfare blatherings?

The “Elites” that truly run the show are old money, much of it acquired in a fashion that would be illegal today and was certainly unethical back then. Some of them are art of royalty. The relatively new comers, Soros, Gates and the like, while members in the elite circles do not command neither the respect or wealth of the blue bloods.

Just for a start readWar Is A Racket” written by 2x MOH recipient USMC General Smedley Butler. Once that is digested, its a small book read, Trading With The Enemy. Gary Allens, None Date Call It A Conspiracy and Griffins and then, The Creature From Jekyll Island.

” propaganda”

Yep there has been a lot of that going around and the “Elite” own the media.

Kevin2, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” is the book that woke me up back in the 70s. I also have copies of “War Is A Racket” and “The Creature From Jekyll Island”. Never read “Trading With the Enemy”; I’ll have to go find a copy of that one.

I find batting a thousand, that the people that scoff at the globalist conspiratorial theory have read nothing. The books are there, often with the source listed which is public law or record. Its indisputable evidence for the most part. The dots connected are very short and direct as if someone appears on each side of a street, they obviously walked across the street.

Trading With The Enemy is especially well researched. It had to be by the statements in the book directly accusing top companies of coincidently, “Trading With The Enemy” during WWII.

In its simplest form the issue stems from what Einstein described as the most powerful force in the universe, compound interest. Capital over time will increase, and then they make more money by making interest on the interest.
Obviously there are many other factors, but we are partly where we are because we have become net borrowers, rather then owners.

These banksters and destructive vulture capitalists who created this mess should have their (offshore) banking assets SEIZED to pay off all odious private debts they’ve offloaded onto the PUBLIC middle class with their bullsh!t ‘money out of thin air’ financial maneuvering.

Afterwards, jail time! And I’d throw away the fcuking key at the bottom of the ocean — right below the Fukishima disaster. Let ’em rot in jail ’till death do us part.’

When Dollar Collapse comes, it will be unlike anything the American sheeple has ever seen or experienced. Their smug, blissfull IGNORANCE will disappear in a heartbeat — PRICELESS!! Bring it on!

Again half truths. Simply put the rise of the USA producing middle class was a one tie anomaloy in the history of entre world. After the war Europe was bombed out. The USA was untouched by war on the main land.We had the factories, workforce & natural resources. So we became the words builders. If someone waned anything built they came here first. That all began to change with the fake gas sortage in the 70,s. the americangas guzzler cars wherent in demand any longer. The blame is way back then. Obama is horrible however he isn’t the main culprit. those who preceded him started the decline 40 years before he even became president.

Kevin yes it was a stroke of luck that made the usa the worlds producers for a few decades after WWII. Howeve we began rebuilding parts of europe and japan with our money. The USA kept supporting guys like the Shaw of Iran. The law of supply & demand eventually would have leveled the plying field. However actions by goverments and the oil cartel accelerated the decline. Al gores global warming scam. goverment regulations. the rising cost of production. they all whether planned by the NWO or by accident drove production to where ever the cost of production was lower. I certainly don’t like Obama He is the Worst so far. However the insinuation that its entirely Obamas fault is a lie. No matter if Rommeny or the Great Paul Rand had been elected we would still be in the same situation.

Rand Paul and his father would never be elected. Both may put some sand in the gears; the father would be front end loading it.

“Presidents aren’t elected, they’re selected” and their names are preferred and acceptable. McCain and Romney are acceptable but not preferred as they may try but have less ability to accomplish the desires of the power elite at the time.

Fury was good but not accurate. That model of Sherman had the 76MM firefly gun that could penetrate a Tiger at those ranges. The scene at the end was dramatized but from a strategy standpoint beyond foolish. The turret could move. They had HE ammo. Keep the Germans out of Panzerfist range.

I will play Devil’s Advocate. Could the middle class share of the growth be receding further with each passing year because the majority of the smartest and most talented have already left the middle class for the upper class elite?

I know a lot of middle class folks who have just said screw it, they like myself are no longer willing to work their asses off to support the leeches, i know a few over a dozen just like myself who are business owners and just said EH’ i can get by on much less and have way more me time rather than working and working for dollars that go for less and less,

Kula you are correct. Myself I quit producing. I sold my cattle and extra equiptment. Started drawing a Social Security Ponzi check. Buy as much online so I don’t pay sales taxes. barter or cash for some other things. That is what happened Many producers decided that they where tired of producing and their producing being robbed (taxed)and a portion being redistributed to the parasites who had ought naught to do with their producing. and the they have to compete with the very money that was robbed from them whenever they purchased some item. So the producers have quit.

Smart and talent just like a college degree by themselves are not worth much. They certainly are not a guarantee of success. The cards are stacked against most folks. Telsa was way smarter & talented than Edison. However telsa wasn’t as well connected & as crooked as Edison. Telsa died poor.

I’m hoping for the largest C.M.E. in the history of the Sun and hope it wipes all electronics and electricity generation out for decades. Why? Because that is the only thing that will put the little people on an even footing with the elitists and government thugs. Bring on the C.M.E.!

More bullshit from you brain dead sheeple. The middle class has been dying for the past 30 years. You people will never solve any problems beause you cannot clearly identify a problme due to your own blinding biases.

Yes the American middle class Thrived after WWII. However It died long before Obama came along. Many who thought they where middle class where not. They bought too much debt. They bought a $500,000 home when all thy could really afford was a $50,000 one. Too much easy credit and loans made to folks who where not credit worthy created more problem,s than it solved. Folks pay more for a car than my home cost. My neighbor paid more for new tractor than my 120 acre farm cost. Because of credit. My Great Grandad Always warned beware of the Jew Banker.

In the early seventies when I was a young man in my twenties . I was looking for work. A opportunity can along to purchase 1/2 intrest in a small samill. I sold A lot of things and came up with the cash. We bought logs cut to a 8ft 6inch length and sawed them into inch y 9 inch railroad tie,s. The Lumber off the sides covered our operating cost. We did great making good money. We provided jobs for several workers. Then along came the Fake gas shortage. We couldn’t by any fuel. sent everyone home. We had a large 500 gallon Lp Tank ad used a LP tractor and finished sawing up our inventory of logs. Divided up equiptment and quit. I still own the sawmill its rusting away in a overgrowth of brambles and small trees. That was four decades befor Obma came along. I blame Kissenger

Everything about this story is incorrect. First of all the middle class shouldn’t be compared with the 1%. For what purpose except to cause envy and maybe anger. The middle class in this country have it ten times better then any people any where at any time and to imply because a handful of rich people are getting richer that somehow that diminishes the middle class is pure stupidity. In fact the opposite is true. The very conditions that allow the rich to get richer insure that the middle class and poor will also do well. Your life, health and well being is totally unaffected by how much money Bill Gates has or does not have. It is a stupid measure to put them together on the same chart. It is a failure of our school system that anyone would think this made sense.
Of course in a recession the average income will go down and of course some people will lose their jobs and even their homes. To use a declining economic period as some kind of forecasting of what the future looks like is naive and stupid. When the economy turns around the middle class outlook will improve. This will happen even if the rich get richer or poorer. Your economic results are far more dependent on what YOU do then what Bill Gates does.
But all of this is worse then you think. The people who advocate some kind of effort to reduce the income or wealth of the rich under the guise of helping the middle class are following a well known and understood roadmap. It is exactly the same roadmap Stalin followed, same one Castro followed, the very same plan that al the great despots of the 20th century followed. In every case it was necessary to convince the “Kulak’s” that the rich were the reason they were poor and killing the rich and taking their money would somehow improve their life. How did that work out?

Check your cash, check the cash of the rich ones (if you can, hehehe – THEY can yours – THEY are the bankers, THEY know your income – but inverse??? …), ask, what they have done better than you – nothing! (except: being more criminal and cynic …) – and you’ll see, if you’re free, or not …

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